Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom

Quietube is a handy tool that allows you to watch videos such a those on YouTube without all the distracting or inappropriate ads and comments etc. Providing YouTube isn’t blocked at your school, this is a great tool for the classroom!

Quietube also works with videos from Vimeo, BBC iPlayer (available in UK only) and Viddler.

Using Quietube is so easy. You simply drag the button from the site to your toolbar, then when you are watching a video on a site like YouTube, you press the Quietube button on your toolbar and the video opens in a distraction free window.

You can also get a short link to your distraction free Quietube video to send to a friend.

Each week Simon Collier and I collaborate on an email newsletter for teachers called Tech Tools for Teachers. Click here to find an archive of past newsletters and to subscribe.

This week we review the website Behind the News (BTN)

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/

Behind the News (BTN) is a fantastic Australian site by the ABC that helps students learn about current issues and events around the world. Each Tuesday a new episode of BTN is released online comprising of about 5 different stories that are each under 5 minutes long. The stories can be watched individually on the BTN website and also screen on ABC1 television (currently Tuesdays at 10am and Wednesdays at 10.30am).

Apart from the videos, the BTN website also contains activity sheets, links, quizzes, polls etc for follow up work. After you watch an episode you can visit the Guestbook on the BTN site to leave a comment.

While BTN is promoted for students in upper primary and secondary school, I have had great success using it with my Grade Two students. I incorporate a weekly BTN session into my curriculum. There are always a range of stories, many of which are less complex and can be understood by younger students. My class has had many rich discussions and experiences based on BTN stories and it is a fantastic way for students to learn about the world in which they live!

On the Teachers Page of the BTN website you will find a list of topics which you can go to to find archived BTN stories around a particular subject. Each topic collection contains a teacher resource pack with focus questions, activities and additional links. There are currently 15 topics with archived stories ranging from Water, to Natural Disasters to Space and Astronomy. Hopefully this section will continue to expand.

Tip: go to the Teachers Page and sign up to be on the mailing list. You will receive an email each Friday telling you what stories are coming out on the following Tuesday. If you are a Twitter user you can also follow BTN on Twitter for story updates.

We like BTN because it:
• is free
• is Australian
• is not geo restricted which means the videos can be streamed outside of Australia
• is presented in “plain language”
• doesn’t require a sign-up or login
• is suitable for all year levels from Grade Two to secondary school
• covers a huge range of current affairs and news topics
• can be used as a whole class on the IWB, or individually on student notebooks or classroom computers
• can be integrated into many subject areas
• can be used as a quick ten minute activity (5 minute video and 5 minute discussion) or as part of a more lengthy session with follow up activities.

How have you used BTN in your classroom?

Smories is a website with short videos of children reading original stories for kids. There are 50 new Smories added every month. Writers are encouraged to submit their original children’s stories to be featured on the website.

The stories are advertised as being suitable for children aged three to eight although there are many stories that would also appeal to children older than eight.

There is a special version of Smories available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and there will soon be an iPad version.

I have been using this site with my Grade Two class as a means of modelling reading with expression and also as a comprehension activity. I have been encouraging the students to picture the story in their mind as they listen. Listening to Smories is also a good way to revise the features of a narrative.

My students have really enjoyed the stories and find it quite appealing to listen to children their own age.

Next time we do a story writing activity I am going to get my students to publish their work “Smory style” which we can then put on our class blog.

Do you have any other ideas of how you could integrate this site into your classroom?

I heard about this You Tube clip via a few different people on Twitter. The 4 minute video involves 18 classroom teachers “speaking out” on the topic of tech integration and 21st Century skills for students.

It’s a really interesting insight into what the technology in the classroom can look like in all curriculum areas and allludes to why technology integration is so important. Check it out…

Each week Simon Collier and I collaborate on a weekly email newsletter to inform teachers of great online tools. Find out more here.

ZUITUBE

This week we review the site, Zuitube (http://video.kidzui.com/)

Zuitube is basically YouTube for kids. The site promotes itself as the “largest collection of videos for kids on the web“.

YouTube videos can be very useful in the classroom however, finding appropriate, kid-friendly videos on YouTube can be like finding a needle in a haystack! Zuitube allows you to search for specific topics or browse categories and channels.

All the videos on Zuitube have been reviewed by parents or teachers and there are currently over 60,000 videos on the site.

ZuiTube is part of KidZui, a web browser and search engine for kids that filters internet content.

We like Zuitube because it:

• is free
• is suitable for all year levels (NB: there seems to be more content for primary rather than secondary kids)
• doesn’t require any login
• there are videos that could compliment every curriculum area
• the search function is very kid-friendly (when you type in a search word, suggestions pop up and search results also include a picture – great for non-readers)
• is safe for kids.

The only downside of Zuitube that we can see is the fact that you have to actually go to YouTube to get the link to embed videos on blogs or websites.

HOW TO…

To use Zuitube

1. Go to http://video.kidzui.com/
2. Search for the video or category you want by clicking on

• channels,
• tags (categories), or
• search.

1. You can also browse the featured pages such as “Funniest Videos”, “New TV & Cartoons”, “Movies”, “Silly Songs” or “New Music”.
2. When you watch a video, other related videos will appear down the bottom of the screen.

USES IN THE CLASSROOM

Zuitube could be used…

• as a lesson introduction in any subject area (on an IWB or projector)
• in a music lesson or sing-a-long session (there are lots of great songs for kids)
• to find kid-friendly videos to enhance blogs, wikis or websites
• as a stimulus for a listening or comprehension activity (students could answer oral or written questions about a video)
• to analyse characters, plots etc in clips from tv shows and movies
• to add some humour to your classroom! At the end of each day you could watch a funny video with your class.

Have a go at using Zuitube with your class!  Let us know how you went using this tool in your classroom by leaving a comment.

We’re currently on school holidays until the end of January, however it is hard to switch off completely! I received an email about Xtranormal’s new software and have been having a play around today.

I have previous blogged about the great online movie maker “Xtranormal“. Click here to read my post about it this effective and simple tool to make animated movies.

My Grade Two students loved making movies on this site, however being an online application we had a few problems with the Internet being slow etc!

Xtranormal now has a program that you can download to your computer rather than making your movies on the net. It it is a beta software called “State“.

According to the site…

STATE lets you make better movies, faster.

• Multiple actors per scene
• Multiple scenes per movie
• Audio import
• Custom camera placement
• Walking actors
• Actors and locations marketplace
• Voice recording NEW!

A cool feature of this program is that students can customise their actors’ voices with their own.

State is only available for Windows, however talk on the Xtranormal forum indicates that the Mac version may be coming soon.

The downside is, while State is free it only comes with a choice of two actors and one scene! You can pay to download “Showpaks” which are collections of actors and scenes that don’t come with the free version. The Showpaks tend to be around $40 US and give you quite a good selection of actors and scenes. I still think the program could be a useful digital storytelling tool to use in the classroom and the simplicity of it makes it ideal for younger students.

There are State tutorials on the Xtranormal website that you could go through as a class to introduce your students to the program.

Completed movies can be exported as standard movie files or shared on the web.

Here is a short video I made today with the State software.  

Trialling Xtranormal State from Kathleen McGeady on Vimeo.

As we’re now getting into “Christmas mode” at school, here are some sites that might be useful in the primary classroom.

Primary Games has a wide range of flash style Christmas games for kids. Great to use on an IWB or classroom computer.

North Pole is a great site for kids and teachers. There are stories, games and all sorts of interactive activities. Children can even write a letter to Santa and he will reply.

Kelly Tenkely has written a post on interactive Advent calendars which would be great to use with children on an IWB on the countdown to Christmas.

Fanpop has a collection of links to 100 classic Christmas videos. Great to watch on an IWB at the end of the school year (be warned, I have found a couple that have been dubbed in foreign languages!).

Origami Club has some step-by-step animations and printable instructions for Christmas origami such as santas, reindeer, stars etc.

Leave a comment if you have any other good Christmas links.

Google Wave is the next big thing by Google that is currently released as a “preview” for people to try. It has been said to be a mix between email, wikis and instant messenger and has some excellent functions for collaboration. This short video is worth watching to get an overview of what Google Wave is all about and how you might use it.

To learn more about Google Wave check out the site here or the excellent article about it on the SLAV Bright Ideas blog.

Google Wave could be an excellent tool for global projects and collaboration in the classroom and I’m looking forward to its release!

Two sites which I often use for “how to” or “explanation” videos for my Grade Two students are the How Stuff Works video centre and Howcast site.

How Stuff Works is provides “credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works”. I often use short videos from this site to assist with the explanation of a concept to my students. While probably more suited for middle primary to upper high school students, I have found some good content to use with my Grade Two students.

“Howcast provides the answer to any how-to question” and encourages people to submit their own how-to videos on the site. My students have loved some of the procedural videos in the “kids” category on this site such as the origami, social skills, cooking, craft and science videos.

Both of these sites need to be monitored by the teacher for inappropriate content (particularly Howcast, from my experience). I prefer to chose the videos I want my students to watch and show them on the IWB, iPod Touch or classroom computer.

Here is an example of a Howcast video that I showed as a introduction to a lesson on length. My students had to make a paper plane and measure and record how far they could fly their plane.